


Move Over

by Dandybear



Category: Avatar (TV), Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Cuddle Drabbles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2014-11-30
Packaged: 2018-02-27 13:25:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2694692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dandybear/pseuds/Dandybear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Various drabbles involving siblings cuddling. Ranges from fluffy to angsty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Move Over

**Author's Note:**

> If there's one thing both shows do right it's siblings. 
> 
> I intend to write something for each group of siblings. Thus, somewhere in the future there'll be installments for Tarrlok-Noatak, Unalaq-Tonraq, Cloudbabies, Su's litter, Mai and Tom Tom, etc.

“Lin, can I sleep with you?”

 

Facing the wall away from her baby sister gives her time to pretend to be asleep. Suyin takes her silence as an affirmative. She feels the covers being tugged away. They are Suyin’s rope as she clamors up the side of the mattress to press against her.

 

“Go back to your own bed, Su.” Lin says.

 

She tugs the covers trapped under her sister. Her chest feels tight with anger. She tugs harder. Then she’s flipped on her side baring her teeth.

 

Suyin looks up at her. She has a thumb still in her mouth and her eyes look liquid in the dim light.

 

Lin deflates. Her anger melts away and she huffs, lifting the covers for Su to crawl under. She snuffles and presses her cold feet against Lin’s.

 

“Quit it. Go to sleep.”

 

Suyin clings to Lin like a stuffed toy. Lin folds her mouth into a frown. She hears a creak in the hall and the crack of light seeping through the door goes black. The gap increases and she watches her mother push it open to see the source of the ruckus.

 

Lin plays dead. She wants her mother to see her as asleep. As vulnerable. She snuffles and kicks a leg out of the covers.

 

Success is the sound of footsteps coming into her bedroom and the feeling of the covers being fixed to tuck around both her and Su. It’s the sensation of rough fingers dancing across the bottom of her foot. Lin fails to stifle a giggling.

 

“I know you’re awake.” Her mother says.

 

Lin opens her eyes but they’re obscured by the dark curtain of her mother’s hair.

 

Toph doesn’t kiss her goodnight. Instead she pokes Lin’s noise and ruffles Suyin’s hair before leaving.

 

“Goodnight Mom.”

 

“Night Mommy.”

 

“Goodnight girls.”

 

 

* * *

 

  
  


“They need to sleep in their own rooms!”

 

“I don’t see what the problem is. You let them sleep together when they were little.”

 

“Yes, Ozai. It’s fine when they’re two and four and five and six, but Zuko’s going to be a man soon! It’s not natural.”

 

They sit behind the curtain with their fingers a tangled mess. Azula’s biting her lip and her face is pressed against her knees. Zuko should be strong in this situation. He should tell his mother that there’s nothing to worry about. He and Azula just feel most comfortable when they share a bed. Their rivalry is exhausting and bed is the only neutral zone.

 

He says nothing but tightens his grip on Azula’s fingers.

 

That night he sleeps in his own bed. His mother tucks him in and his father shadows her in the doorway.

 

The bed feels cold and empty.

 

He wriggles to try and create some friction heat. The movement distances him from his mother.

 

“Zuko, it will take some time to get used to, but it’s for the best.” Her voice is pleading.

 

He wants to turn his back on her. To show solidarity to his sister.

 

Zuko is a Mama’s Boy at heart. He curls toward her and nods. His eyes are still fixed on the sheets.She kisses his forehead and wishes him a goodnight. He looks up at his father who gives him an apologetic shrug before leaving in tow.

 

Zuko can’t sleep. The space behind his back feels empty. He’s so used to the familiar weight and warmth of Azula behind him. His teeth chatter.

 

Light filters in as the door opens. He hears muted footsteps dash across the smooth wood as if it were lava. That familiar weight is back. Azula’s breath almost stings with heat. Her arms wrap around his ribcage tight.

 

“Don’t leave me.” She says.

 

“I’ll try.” He says.

 

(Once, twice, three times, he leaves her. She hates him for it, but she always forgives him when comes back.)

 

 

* * *

 

 

“I’ll be f-f-fine. I just gotta waterbend myself dry and then w-w-warm up with airbending. Or m-m-maybe some fire?” Aang says.

 

His teeth chatter and his shudders are disturbingly jerky. Sokka is wordlessly carrying him back to the igloo. Katara follows with worried eyes.

 

“You guys are being over-dr-dramatic. J-j-just lemme dry off.”

 

Once inside the igloo they strip him. He gets his arm twisted up in an already half-frozen sleeve. Katara pulls out a jar of blubber and begins to rub his bare body with it. Aang shrieks in protest.

 

“Katara! You’re going to make me smell like a dead animal.”

 

“Aang, shut up.” Sokka says (affectionately).

 

Their demeanors are serious. Aang’s eyes widen as they both begin to strip themselves as well as him. Katara shoos him into bed. To his relief, they at least keep their underclothes on, but strip him of his.

 

“My virtue!” He says.

 

Katara rolls her eyes at his whining.

 

“Sweetie, the groin is a source of body heat. If it’s cold and wet you won’t be able to warm up properly.”

 

“If you’re worried about us judging your shrunken junk, it happens. Kind of a right of passage here at the South Pole.”

 

Sokka crawls over Aang to lay closest to the wall. Aang, for all his grumbling, moves closer to the source of heat. Katara slides in next. She wraps her whole body around Aang. Sokka scoffs.

 

“Yes, yes, you two love each other. Please don’t make me witness to the icky stuff you do about it.”

 

“Well, Sokka, I didn’t get pregnant from holding hands.” Katara says.

 

Sokka’s eyes widen. He looks at Aang who looks equally shocked.

 

“You’re pregnant?” They say.

 

Katara twists her mouth, realising there was probably a way to say that with more tact.

 

“Surprise?” She says.

 

She does jazz hands to see if it will help. (It does.)

 

“So, I’m gonna be Uncle Sokka?”

 

“You’re gonna be Uncle Sokka. Congratulations.” Aang says.

 

“Congratulations to you, jerk!”

 

Sokka ruffles Aang’s bald head. Aang’s lips are turning light purple instead of blue and his hands are starting to warm up. The monks never valued physical affection and saw it as a gateway drug to earthly attachment. Non-romantic snuggles (with people) are nice.

 

“Let’s all agree not to tell Toph.” Aang says.

 

“About the baby?” Katara says.

 

“No, about me almost freezing my penis off and needing to be rubbed down with animal fat.” Aang says.

 

“Oh believe me, I am telling everyone about this.” Sokka says.

 

Aang pouts, Katara slaps her brother on the arm.

 

 

* * *

 

  
  


“I think there’s a chicken bone poking into my back.” Bolin says.

 

He says it in a matter-of-fact way, not whining. He watches Mako curl into himself further. He has a newspaper draped over himself like a blanket. Bolin can swear he hears his older brother sniffle.

 

“Mako? Are you okay.”

 

He moves from the comfortable patch of garbage he’s been laying on to put a hand on Mako’s shoulder. The hand is swatted away and then rubbed furiously against an eye.

 

“I’m sorry Bolin. You deserve better than to sleep in trash.”

 

“If I do, then so do you, Mako. And hey, it’s not so bad. At least it’s warmer here than in the park.”

 

Bolin pushes a glass bottle out of the way so he can press against Mako’s back. He wraps an arm around his quietly shaking brother and tries to make the soothing hushes their mother would.

 

All it does is make his brother keen.

 

(Poverty is a form of violence.)

 

* * *

 

 

They don’t fit together as well as they did when they were young. He’s bulkier and she has curves and the total surface area of their hair covers both pillows.

 

Azula tucks her jaw over Zuko’s shoulder. He feels the movements as she speaks.

 

“Is this weird?”

 

“Yeah. A little. Not bad weird, just… weird.”

 

She combs his hair up and onto the the pillow with her fingers. She’s trying to keep it from smothering her while she spoons him.

 

“Mother might see us.” She says.

 

Her voice is a warm breath on the shell of his ear.

 

“Mother can deal. We are grown ass adults and we can cuddle if we want to.”

 

Zuko shifts because his robe is tangling between his thighs.  He reaches down to adjust without jostling Azula too much.

 

“I think she was more concerned about us engaging in intercourse in our pre-teenage experimentations.”

 

“I don’t know what’s more disgusting, Mom assuming we’d be incestuous, or the way you describe sex.”

 

Azula chuckles by his neck.

 

“Would you prefer I call it ‘making love’? Rutting like animals in heat?”

 

Zuko is glad his back is turned because his cheeks are reddening and this is probably not an appropriate topic of discussion for two siblings to be having while sharing a bed.

 

As if to save him from pointedly changing the subject, there’s a knock on the door.

 

Kiyi, not raised in a proper household, enters before they answer.

 

“Mom told me to see if I could find you two.” She says.

 

Azula makes an irritated noise. Zuko rolls onto his back and sits up.

 

“Well, you’ve found us.” He says.

 

Azula covers her face with a pillow and dissolves into disgruntled grumbles.

 

“Can I come cuddle too?” Kiyi says.

 

“Of course.” Zuko says.

 

“Not.” Azula says.

 

Kiyi takes a running start before flopping onto their legs. She earns an ‘oof’ from Azula. Clawed hands make their way from under the covers to tickle Kiyi’s sensitive underarms. She shrieks and writhes around on the bed. Zuko laughs watching his sisters roughhouse.

 

The noise draws the attention of their mother. She stands in the doorway with cold eyes and pursed lips.

 

“So this is where you two have been hiding.”

 

“Yes, Mother, we were hiding in my bedroom. Call off the search party.” Azula says.

 

Ursa ignores the jibe and gathers up her robes.

 

“Your wife and children will be home soon, Zuko.” She says.

 

As if she has to remind him. Zuko looks at his two sisters laying on each other like cats in a pile. This bed used to seem vast when he was nine. Now the thought of packing in Mai and their two girls seems like a difficult feat.

 

“I think we’re gonna need a bigger bed then.” He says.

 

Kiyi folds her lips over her teeth to keep from laughing. Azula guffaws.

 

Ursa sighs and closes the door.

  
“Mom, go get your jammies! We can build a fort!” Kiyi shouts at the closed door.


End file.
